In 2006 he founded Bjarke Ingels Group, which grew to a staff of 400 by 2015, with noted projects including the 8 House housing complex, VIA 57 West in Manhattan, the Google North Bayshore headquarters (co-designed with Thomas Heatherwick), the Superkilen park, and the Amager Resource Center (ARC) waste-to-energy plant – the latter which incorporates both a ski slope and climbing wall on the building exterior.

He moved to New York City in 2012, where in addition to the VIA 57 West, BIG won a design contest after Hurricane Sandy for improving Manhattan's flood resistance.

[3] Hoping to become a cartoonist, he began studying architecture in 1993 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, thinking it would help him improve his drawing skills.

[21] The parking garage is protected from wind and rain by huge shiny aluminium plates, perforated to let in light and allow for natural ventilation.

[28] In 2007, Ingels exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City and was commissioned to design the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør.

The 7,600 m2 (82,000 sq ft) exhibition gallery is to house an extensive collection of paintings, model ships, and historical equipment and memorabilia from the Danish Navy.

[30] Ingels is collaborating with consulting engineer Rambøll, Alectia for project management, and E. Pihl & Søn and Kossmann.dejong for construction and interior design.

The open-air 3,000 m2 (32,000 sq ft) steel pavilion has a spiral bicycle path, accommodating up to 300 cyclists who experience Danish culture and ideas for sustainable urban development.

[32] In the centre, amid a pool of 1 million litres (264,172 gallons) of water, is the Copenhagen statue of The Little Mermaid, paying homage to Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

[32] In 2009, Ingels designed the new National Library of Kazakhstan in Astana located to the south of the State Auditorium, said to resemble a "giant metallic doughnut".

[33] BIG and MAD designed the Tilting Building in the Huaxi district of Guiyang, China, an innovative leaning tower with six facades.

[34] In 2010, Fast Company magazine included Ingels in its list of the 100 most creative people in business, mentioning his design of the Danish pavilion.

[35] BIG projects became increasingly international, including hotels in Norway, a museum overlooking Mexico City, and converting an oil industry wasteland into a zero-emission resort on Zira Island off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan.

[37] In 2011, BIG won a competition to design the roof of the Amagerforbrænding industrial building, with 31,000 m2 (330,000 sq ft) of ski slopes of varying skill levels.

[38] The roof is put forward as another example of "hedonistic sustainability": designed from recycled synthetics, aiming to increase energy efficiency by up to 20 percent.

[39] In October 2011, The Wall Street Journal named Ingels the Innovator of the Year for architecture,[40] later saying he was "becoming one of the design world's rising stars" in light of his portfolio.

[41] In 2012, Ingels moved to New York to supervise work on a pyramid-like apartment building on West 57th Street,[3] a collaboration with real estate developer Durst Fetner Residential.

"[49] Designed as a village of interlocking and overlapping buildings and spaces, the house is conceived with identical proportions to the toy bricks, and can be constructed one-for-one in miniature.

[52] In 2015, Ingels began working on a new headquarters for Google in Mountain View, California with Thomas Heatherwick, the British designer.

[4][62] A sequel, Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, explored 60 case studies through a climatic lens, to examine where and how people live on the planet, working from the warmest regions to the coldest.

[67] Ingels was cast in My Playground, a documentary film by Kaspar Astrup Schröder that explores parkour and freerunning, with much of the action taking place on and around BIG projects.

"[71] The Netherlands Architecture Institute described him as "a member of a new generation of architects that combine shrewd analysis, playful experimentation, social responsibility and humour.

[73] He has also been outspoken against "suburban biopsy" in Holmen, Copenhagen, caused by wealthy older people (the grey-gold generation) living in the suburbs and wanting to move into the town to visit the Royal Theatre and the opera.

[74] In 2014, Ingels released a video entitled 'Worldcraft' as part of the Future of StoryTelling summit, which introduced his concept of creating architecture that focuses on turning "surreal dreams into inhabitable space".

[75] Citing the power of alternate reality programs and video games, like Minecraft,[76] Ingels's 'worldcraft' is an extension of 'hedonistic sustainability' and further develops ideas established in his first book, Yes Is More.

In the video (and essay by the same name in his second book, Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation) Ingels notes: "These fictional worlds empower people with the tools to transform their own environments.